Recovery from addiction takes healing the whole person. Joel Brown works in Vocational Advancement helping men heal both mentally and emotionally. He recently answered some questions about his life and work. (This blog post was first published in 2015 but has recently been updated.)

“In high school,” Roxanne said, “I just wanted to be a mom.” She got married at 19, had her first child at 20. After two failed marriages fraught with domestic violence and control issues, she found herself alone, overwhelmed and unable to care for her two daughters: Victoria, 14, and Monet, 10.

Next week,* Luke Hauflin, 21, will be headed off to Sacramento, California to join
Americorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps). For now, he is living at the
UGM Men's Shelter, helping keep the place in tip top shape as part of the housekeeping team.

His supervisor, Rob Meredith, praised his work ethic: "Luke is super conscientious and goes above and beyond what is asked of him. He makes my job a lot easier."

I thought this day would never come. Recently, I interviewed for my business practicum at The Spokesman Review. As I sat in the human resource office, I realized this building could be my future. I started writing at six years of age when my mom gave me my first journal. I wrote about what I did during the day, and by the age of 15, I had collected an abundance of journals filled with my thoughts and activities.

Robert Lewis turned to drugs and alcohol partly in response to frustrations in the work place.

“My addiction came from always trying to be a workaholic,” Robert said. After overworking in hopes of promotions that never came, Robert felt he deserved to escape. “When I would eventually get off work, it was my time to play.”

It's hard to break the cycle of homelessness if you can't get a job. In UGM's Vocational Advancement department, staff work with residents to create a long-term plan with incremental goals. One of those goals is the business practicum experience that takes place during phase 4 of the recovery program.